67 Dart 270...Project Old School

-
S

sledger46

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 15, 2010
Messages
384
Reaction score
30
Location
Fenton, MO
Why Project Old School? Well, it's got manual steering, manual brakes, bench seat, and the factory Dart AM radio. The goal is to build a quick, stock looking Dart. The engine will be dressed out like a 273 from 67. I am torn on whether to put headers on the car or not. Headers are not original, but exhaust manifolds leave a lot of HP and torque on the table. I am also torn on keeping the bench seat and column shifter versus switching to buckets and a console shifter. I am sure budget will have a big influence on what direction I go.

DSC05661.JPG
 
I am sure budget will have a big influence on what direction I go.
it always does, need more pics of the car, gotta love the 67 -69 darts I wish I had one or a dozen:toothy10:, good luck and keep us posted
 
When my vert was on the road I ran a reverse manual valve body with the shifter on the column. It would throw a lot of people off and made it quite fun.
 
Nice! I also have a '67 270 with manual brakes, manual steering and a bench seat. As a matter of fact, I drove it to work today. Can't stop going to the breakroom and staring out the window at it! The guy I got it from (Florida) had converted it to front disc brakes and 5X4.5 all the way around. I have added headers to the 318 and full dual exhaust. Mainly 'cause I wanted to and partly 'cause the old exhaust system was mangled. The car was primered over in light gray sometime before I got it. It was originally gold. I'm thinking of painting it yellow. Like bright, electric yellow. And making the interior black. Is your car yellow? Got more pictures?
 
Hello again,

My Dart 270 was originally white. The previous owner bought it from a little old lady down in Arkansas with the original slant 6. He drove it for a while and then decided to paint the car Viper yellow. After he painted the car he bought a new truck and almost never drove the Dart. One of his buddies talked him into swapping in a V8. They got the engine and transmission in and got it to the point the car would start. At this point, he decided that with the white/dark blue interior would look better with a dark blue paint job. He pulled all the trim off the car and started sanding it down to repaint. The car then got moved to a storage garage at a friends house and sat. Eventually he got tired of the project and put it on Craig's List.

The car doesn't have any rust holes that I could find. The trunk and floorboards are solid. The interior is in pretty good shape other then the tears in the driver seat. The fabric split at the seams on the botom cushion.

Here it is coming home:
DSC05667.JPG


Here is a shot of the interior:
DSC05658.JPG


Here are a couple shots of the solid trunk:
DSC05653.JPG

DSC05654.JPG


The Dart even had the original dealer credit card plate in the holder behind the battery. The car was originally sold to a gentleman in Missouri. I will see if I can get a picture of the card to post.
 
Clean! I like it! There is a piece of trim missing off the hood and the DODGE letters on the trunk are gone from my car. The bottom of the front fenders right behind the tires have a little bit of rot in them and there's fist-sized hole in each floorboard (right where you put your feet) that has been patched. Also, the very corner of the trunk lip under the back window on the driver's side has been patched. Other than those places, it's solid. When I got the car it had a rod knock so I put a reman crank and new bearings in.
 
Weezer,

How well do the disks work with the manual setup? I am guessing you have to get a different master cylinder.
 
On Saturday I purchased a completely rebuilt 8 3/4 rear end for an A body to replace the spindly 7 1/4. The 8 3/4 came with a rebuilt sure grip and 3.91 gears in a 742 case. The rear end came with high strength alloy axles on a 4 1/2" bolt pattern. I also go the backing plates and the flared drums. I also got all the seals and gaskets as well as all the brake parts brand new in boxes. I basically just need to assemble it and fill it with oil and it would be ready to be put into the car.
 
sledger46 said:
Weezer,

How well do the disks work with the manual setup? I am guessing you have to get a different master cylinder.
Click to expand...

The brakes work really well, as a matter of fact. The master is a two-pot. Is it original? I don't know. It looks factory. The brakes work so well I haven't tinkered with them at all. I'm pretty sure there's a thread on here that details the conversion.
 
Hello all,

Over the weekend I upgraded the ignition to electronic using the Summit Racing, Chrysler copy cat, electronic ignition conversion kit. I also included one of Summit Racing's higher output coil. The car starts much easier now and runs a lot smoother as well. It was a very worth while upgrade. It was a good thing I had already upgraded the car's single field charging system to the elctronic dual field setup to get from the 26 AMP to 50 AMP capability to contend with the higher electrical load from the new ignition.
 
Hello all,

Last night I got my Lokar kick down cable installed on my Dart. When I got the Dart the previous owner had zip tied the kick down level wide open. At first I thought the trans was missing third gear. After I cut the zip tie, the trans did shift into drive. I can't believe how tight it is under the floor of the Dart. I was thinking about adding headers, but it looks like a nightmare to get all the tubes past the suspension and shifter linkage. I had to remove the Chrysler throttle extension lever from my Holley carb to make room for the cable. I need to fab up a new way to connect the throttle cable. Without the extension on the carb, the angle of the cable is not good.
 
Hello all,

Over the past weekend I installed new bulbs for the rear brake lights and front turn signals. I also mounted the front headlights. When I was testing the turn signals, parking lights and running lights, I noticed the front turn signals turned off when I went from parking light configuration to full running lights with the headlights on. Is this a feature or is there something wrong with my headlight switch?
Thanks,
 
This week I began chasing down electrical issues in the dash.
Thetemperature guage doesn't work, the factory AM radio doesn't work, the speedometer doesn't work, the right turn indicator light doesn't work, the oil pressure light doesn't work, the emergency lights don't work, the emergency brake light doesn't work, and the dash lighting is very dim.

I started by pulling the ash tray out of the dash. I then pulled the radio out the ash tray hole. I found all of the wires cut to the radio and some splicing for power. I am assuming the previous owner had a different radio in place of the factory radio. I cleaned up all the wiring and I noticed the plug that connects to the back of the fan speed switch was disconnected. I thought I had found the reason why the fan wasn't working, but even after I hooked up the plug, the fan still doesn't work.

I dropped the steering column and pulled the instrument cluster. It was immediately apparent why the speedometer didn't work. The speedo cable wasn't hooked up. When I reached down to check the cable the steel cable came out of the sleeve. Now I know why that wasn't hooked up. I replaced all the bulbs, except I am missing one of the plastic sockets that screws into the back of the intrument cluster. Does anyone know where I can get one? The ones at Autozone were too small.

I put 5V across the temp guage and it swung across the gauge to hot. That leads me to beleive the temperature guage is OK. I already replace the temperature sensor in the engine with the correct one. I ordered the correct engine sensor to work with the oil pressure idiot light.

At this point I ran out of steam and headed to bed.
 
I had almost forgotten about this thread. Since I last posted I ended up having to go with 17x8 on the back because the offset on the 15x8s had the rear tires hanging out of the rear fender. The 15x7 on the front barely clear the front fenders with a 195R15 tire on the front and the disc brake conversion. I ended up with 255R17 Ripken Rators on the back. The wheels have 5' backspacing which places the tire about 3/8" from the leaf spring on the inside. The good news is I have 3/4" - 1" from the outside of the tire to the fender on the back.

Speaking of brakes...The rear drums came off a C-body and are 11"x2". The discs on the front are the standard 10.75" discs. At this point I am still rocking the original 1967 master cylinder. The car stops straight and true, which is hard to believe with my "eye balled" front alignment. I am still running the stock proportioning valve and the balance seems to be working with my combination. I tell my friends my car has optional power brakes and I point to my left leg. They made the pedal that wide so you can get two feet onto it ;-)

The bench seat came out because a friend of mine scored a console from a swap meet in Oregon. I am using a Hurst shifter and still trying to figure out how I will fab mounts for the console. I installed new carpet and added some Summit Racing gauges to track oil pressure, water temp, and voltage. I ended up going with the Summit Racing sport seats and I hate them. I hate having to climb over Mount Bolster getting in and out of the car. The seats look totally wrong in the car. I plan to replace them with some low back buckets which would be more period correct.

Wiring - I lost all faith in the original harness so I added a secondary fuse block with it's own power feed. I also added a 75 amp 1 wire alternator. My idle voltage went from 12.7 to 14.7 with the change. I have the electronic ignition box connected to the secondary fuse block as well and with the additional voltage the car starts and runs much better. The stereo and gauges are also tied into the secondary fuse block.

Engine vibration problem - solved!!! I finally figured out the previous owner had used a 318 converter behind the 360. I swapped in a 3200 stall 9.5" edge converter and the special B&M 360 flexplate. I was surprised at how well it works in every day driving, but was completely amazed when I was able to foot brake it to 3500 RPM!!! I also installed a B&M stacked plate cooler during the converter swap. With the 3.91 gears and 3500 stall, the car can get out of the hole, but the stock 360 runs out of breath at 5000 RPM.

Right now I am in the middle of an electric fan and controller install. The fan and controller are mounted and tested, but I still need to tie the power back to my secondary fuse block. I am still trying to decide if I want to hook up the optional over-ride circuit so I can manually turn on the fans.
 
Did a similar "lo buck sleeper"build,on a 67 notchback Cuda.One of the most fun projects I ever had.
 
I made a visit to Gateway Motorsports Park over the weekend to see how my Dart was progressing. Last time at the track was in July 2010 with the stock 7.25 rear and stock torque converter. The car now has the 8.75 with 3.91 gears and a 3200 stall converter. The 60 ft dropped from a 2.33 to a 1.95 best this time.

Dart%2520at%2520GMP%2520july%25202012.jpg


I learned a few things on this trip: 1) my radiator is too small - 230 degrees on my gauge is way too much. 2)make sure to leave the wing windows unlatched if you don't have outside door handles on the car. 3) I have a fuel system or ignition problem keeping the car from pulling past 4500 RPM. I am guessing the secondary fuel metering is clogged causing a lean out as the secondaries try to open and establish. This eventually results in the car missing/stumbling/refusing to rev past 4500.
Dart%2520at%2520GMP%2520july%25202012%2520pic%25202.jpg


The car some what improved from a 15.81 @ 86 with a 2.33 60ft to a 15.22 @85 with a 1.95 60 ft. Ordered a new aluminum radiator for it this morning. Once the cooling issue is resolved, I will wire the vacuum secondaries closed and see if it will pull past 4500. I am thinking the car should be able to run mid 14s with a tune and be able to sneak into the 13s with a mild cam and some home ported J heads.
 
Nice car! I see it's a factory air car-sure would be nice in this heat we're having. I to, have a 67 Dart, 273 with working factory air with R12. It's black with a white interior. I take it out on road trips all of the time, only because the air works. I would not drive it at all if it didn't work. Good luck with the car!
 
reminds me a lot of my buddys orange 69 he had yrs ago. I like your build, (I love 67's) keep up the good work.

JOE
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top